Have you bought your 2013 subscription yet? We only have until Aug. 6 so do it now or we may very likely see this wonderful line go away forever! We can't let that happen there are still so many great characters left to get to. Many are the same ones who we missed out on in 200X so let's not go through that again.

One of the great figures we missed out on in 200X who has managed to make it into MOTUC is also a personal favorite of mine: Spikor!

Spikor comes in the standard MOTUC blister card package. Something to note is he comes with his trident hand attached. The vintage did not have his trident attached in the package, but of course that was done a bit differently as we'll look at more later. The back of the box shows off other evil warrior figures in the line, and gives us a new bio for Spikor.

This bio contains a couple references to Spikor's appearances in the old mini-comics. Nordling was the village he attacked in his first appearance (which in turn was named after the mini-comic editor Lee Nordling) that issue also featured a sub plot about Adam bringing a special scroll to the village from King Randor, so that is probably where the idea for the sacred scroll in the bio came from. Spikor being a blacksmith is another mini-comic reference as we saw it was he who made Skeletor's Terror Claws for him. Throwbacks like these are cool additions to the bios.

It also seems to answer the old question of "are Spikor's spikes part of his body or an armor" They are an armor fused to his body in this version. Though what about the ones on his head? Personally I always thought his spikes were part of his body, perhaps poking through his armor thus explaining the blue diamond spike parts.

Spikor utilizes the standard buck for most of his body and has the full range of articulation that comes with it. He does feature the covered ankle boots- in truth most figures do now. His hands are the Skeletor mold, but he actually has new forearms with his unique wrist bracers that have smaller spikes. His head is a well sculpted look that seems to merge his vintage toy look with his Filmation face. Another part taken from Filmation is he comes with an actual left hand.

Filmation saved costs by frequently reusing the same character cells on different backgrounds rather than redrawing everything. Sometimes they would flip the cell so the character was facing the other direction, however this meant they had to make the characters symmetrical. Trap Jaw was one of the few exceptions (and even he showed up with his bionic arm on the wrong side a couple times) but most characters were made to look the same on both sides. Man-At-Arms received armor on both arms, our favorite little magician was named Orko instead of his planned name Gorpo (G can't be flipped O can) and so on. Likewise Spikor was given two hands and his trident was only seen once in the episode "Visitors from Earth" which was actually a pretty dark moment for the show- at one point, the screen fades to black as Skeletor sets him towards a captive, hinting at some kind of horrific use of his spikes; the only point at which Filmation acknowledged the character's potentially deadly abilities which were too extreme for them to show.

The hand can pop off though and be replaced by his trident. Take note that only his left hand comes off, so don't try to force the right one. Much like the debate on if his spikes were part of his body or armor, there was some discrepancy on if his trident was a weapon that fit over his hand or a replacement for a lost limb -perhaps cut off in battle. In the mini-comic "Spikor Strikes" it is shown to be a held weapon and since Spikor appeared after "Visitors from Earth" with two hands it could be assumed Filmation went the same route. However many of his other media appearances seem to lean towards the replacement limb idea. In fact in the mini-comic where we see him make the Terror Claws he is shown with a hammer in place of his trident suggesting it can be swapped out like Trap Jaw's weapons.

Well the bio seems to indicate he is merged with it so take that to mean what you will in regards to it replacing his hand. Figure wise it can swap out like Trap Jaw's weapons, and for that matter is interchangeable with Trap Jaw and anyone else who has interchangeable weapon hands. Spikor himself comes with two tridents and the red piece to go between them and his arm. The trident pieces can actually plug right into the wrist if you want, however to recreate his classic look you first plug in the red attachment and then you can choose the collapsed or extended trident piece.

The vintage figure had a sort of action feature where his trident could extend out of his arm, though this required the figure to have a stiff straight arm for the trident to slide in and out of. For Classics the extended version is a separate piece and thus actually opens up the poses he can obtain with his arm. One other thing I'd like to point out is that the prongs on the trident are actually more pointed than on the vintage figure.

For that matter his body spikes are a much harder plastic as well. Sure they aren't draw blood pointy but, as you can see, they are stiff enough to poke you and leave a mark if you hold him too long. Of course you'll probably just hold him around the waist anyway but I wanted to point out that they are not as flexible as the vintage. Also unlike the vintage they are designed like a removable armor and can be taken off via pegs like any of the other figures'. Conversely though his spiked mace weapon is of a softer plastic much like Man-At-Arms' mace. I do like how it's done in a two tone color with metallic orange spikes.

Next to the vintage figure you can see the slight difference in the head design but it is still recognizable as Spikor. The vintage figure's trident was done with a vac metal finish that, as you can see, tended to wear off over time. The Classics version is simply painted but it still looks good and I feel it works just fine. As I mentioned before, Spikor was one of the characters who did not manage to make it into the 200X line. Not as a figure, a staction, or even a media appearance. The Four Horsemen wanted to get to him and even had a concept art done but the line was completely gone before he could be made.

Spikor was one of my favorite figures as a kid. Granted I had a special sentimental attachment to him since he was my first figure after He-Man and Skeletor, but besides that he just had a really cool and unique design that made him an awesome bad guy even though his few cartoon appearances portrayed him as a total idiot (more so than most villains) and gave him a really strange voice. I was really upset he didn't get into the 200X line so I was super happy to hear he was coming in Classics and the Four Horsemen did not disappoint.

Spikor is sold out on Mattycollector so you'll have to hit the secondary market. In the mean time please, please help out and get a 2013 subscription so we can keep receiving more awesome figures like this. There are so many others that didn't make it into 200X still left to do. It would royally suck to loose out on them two lines in a row! I've got my sub but I can't save this line alone. Let's keep the Good Journey going!

_________________SUPPORT MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS

"I HAVE THE POWER!!.... the power is mine, not yours. Thanks for asking."